Colter-Geist is Not Worth Our Time

The world should really start ignoring Ann Coulter.

She deserves no more press until the day she shocks the world by uttering something truly insightful and real. Something not merely designed to sell books.

So, to all bloggers of the world, gay or straight: enough already about Ann Coulter!

... With one exception: Read this.

After this, let's stop spending so much time with this woman, OK?

Deal or no deal?

Ellen Hosts the Oscars

I don't agree with this. I agree with this.

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Confidence and Bravado: A President's Day Reflection

"The difference between the almost right word & the right word," Mark Twain wrote in 1888, " is really a large matter -- it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning."

I thought of this quote last week while reading an entry on Andrew Sullivan's The Daily Dish about Abraham Lincoln. It's a letter from Lincoln to Ulysses Grant in which he admits a mistake:

My dear General,

I do not remember that you and I ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have done the country. I wish to say a word further. When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do, what you finally did -- march the troups across the neck, run the batteries with the transports, and thus go below; and I never had any faith, except a general hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition, and the like, could succeed. When you got below, and took Port-Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join Gen. Banks; and when you turned Northward East of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake.

I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right, and I was wrong.

Yours very truly
A. Lincoln

What is the one single quality a man would have to have to write such a letter? The word I came up with was "confident." Lincoln is a man who is smart and secure enough to be able to rationally admit a mistake.

But isn't George Bush -- who is pictured above in his 2009 Halloween costume aboard the ship the USS Abraham Lincoln -- a confident man, too?

The answer is "not quite." The word is not quite the right one. Rather, Bush demonstrates what you'd call "bravado," a foolishly unyielding confidence.

George Bush, unlike war hero John Kerry, is certainly no flip-flopper, so he certainly could have never written a letter like the Lincoln letter. But at least he has a liberal dosing of bravado to complement his swagger and his Andrew Johnson-like stubbornness.

Bush likes to compare himself to former presidents, like Harry S Truman and Abraham Lincoln. The comparisons are rubbish. Truman was our last true liberal president, advocating national health care and civil rights.

The comparisons turn into contrasts when you scratch the Bush-Truman surface a little:

• Truman founded the United Nations. Bush lied to the United Nations.
• Truman fought a limited war in Korea that was truly an international effort. Bush's Iraq fiasco was largely a U.S. effort, involving only an additional 24 non-combat Laundry Corps soldiers from Poland, a country that has since withdrawn not only all its troops but also all its fabric softener.
  
• Truman was instrumental in international efforts such as the founding of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; Bush shows contempt for such globalism, opposing the Kyoto accords and showing absolutely no interest in international cooperation whatsoever prior to 9/11.
  
• Truman opposed generals for the right reasons; for example, he had the audacity (and the vision and good judgment) of disagreeing with the very popular (and possibly manic) Gen. Douglas MacArthur by refusing to use dozens of atomic weapons against China and Manchuria. Bush opposed generals, too, but the problem is that these generals, unlike MacArthur, turned out not to be insane.
  
• Truman demonstrated confidence and certitude; Bush demonstrates ... bravado and stubbornness.
  

From all of us here at The Cup of Joe, and by all of us I mean "me," here's wishing a Happy President's Day to you and all you hold dear. As you head off for a night of partying and celebrating the holiday with loved ones, remember that the difference between the right word and the wrong word, and the difference between a good president and a dreadful president, is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning. May your lights shine brightly, my friends.

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A Great Writer Is Hard To Find

Flannery O'Connor and Anna Nicole Smith were both 39 when they died. This is the first time in the history of the world these two women have ever been mentioned in the same breath.

One of my favorite lines in any work of fiction comes in the third last paragraph of O'Connor's short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." Outside the context of the story, it's hard to fully appreciate, but the line comes shortly after the old woman in the story gets three bullets pumped into her chest by an escaped convict referred to as The Misfit.

"She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody
there to shoot her every minute of her life."

Think about this for a bit.

The best thing I've read about Anna Nicole Smith in the last day contains only three words (which forms merely a headline) and a single vivid image. Here it is over on Andrew Sullivan's blog.

A vivid image? An economy of language? Reminds me of a southern Catholic writer who never saw 40.

Flannery O'Connor fans should not miss

this travel story in Sunday's New York

Times. Here it is.

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SPOILER ALERT: Predictions for 2007

One year ago this week, I made some shocking predictions for 2006, almost all of which came true.

I didn't have a blog way back then, so my predictions were contained in a lengthy email to friends. Subject line: PREDICTIONS FOR 2006!!!!!

Before I get to my predictions for 2007, I want to review some of my predictions for 2006.

* I predicted that Wally would be *even sexier* in 2006 than he was in 2005. I was right.

* I predicted that soybean futures would NOT be the place to put your money. I was right.

* I predicted the firing of Donald Rumsfeld, the election of Felipe Calderon as president of Mexico and the scandal involving Britney Spears not wearing panties. I was right, right and right.

Where did I go wrong? I missed predicting Nicole Ritchie's final year-end weight by 14 ounces.

Now, my predictions for 2007:

* A woman in Idaho wins a large jury verdict after suffering a seizure watching Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Jurors are quick to blame the writing.

* Viewership of Internet porn rises at a rate two points higher than inflation.

* Minister Ted Haggard is spotted in Provincetown on the Fourth of July wearing a catcher T-shirt and dancing at the A-House with gay blogger Andrew Sullivan. They are both clutching a copy of Andrew's new book, The Conservative Soul: How We Lost It, How to Get It Back, now available on Amazon.com.

* An unnamed member of the cast of the Real World Road Rules Challenges on MTV fills out an application for a real job and doesn't get it.

* A prominent journalist at a major news network is outed. Shepard Smith breaks the story.

* The Bush Daughters celebrate a double wedding! With each other. In Massachusetts.

* Following the president's divorce, Condeleeza Rice-Bush quickly establishes herself as the most-loved first lady in U.S. history.

* A Broadway Musical based on the life of Hugh Beaumont from Leave It To Beaver becomes the national rage, while also igniting a furious debate over a shocking scene involving Jerry Mathers and a string of pearls.

* Dick Cheney shoots 14 people, including the president of Mexico, in a Thanksgiving day massacre before finally being wrestled to the ground by Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

* Andy Kaufman announces to the world he's really still alive, and then kills himself. Tom Shales at The Washington Post praises the stunt as brilliant.

* Dennis Kucinich is elected president of the new republic of Puerto Rico. Troops from Iraq are quickly redeployed as the U.S. leads the coalition invading San Juan.

* The Cup of Joe resumes its coverage of kittens to rave reviews, and doubles its daily readership to two.

One more prediction to bet the house on:
Towleroad lands another scoop and is the first
to report bullet number 3.

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